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44
DIRTY PREMISES.
Under this heading are included dirty and dilapidated walls
and ceilings, etc.
For the past four years Notices have only been served in
cases where the conditions are such as to be a serious nuisance.
Many occupiers have realized the situation and accepted the inevitable,
while some have whitewashed the ceilings and cleansed the
walls of their houses themselves.
Very much work now remains to be done, but the excessively
high prices of material form a formidable obstacle. It is difficult
to persuade people who have always lived in rooms where the
walls have always been papered, that distempered coloured walls
are healthier and more easily obtained.
ROOFS, RAINWATER PIPES AND EAVES-GUTTERS.
Neglect to keep the roof, gutters and rainwater pipes in
repair soon causes serious damage to property, and to the comfort
and health of the occupants. Owing to circumstances over
which we have had no. control, eaves-gutters and rainwater pipes
have been most difficult to obtain, and properties have suffered
considerably. Defective eaves-gutters are the most common form
of nuisance. They are easily detected, but most consistently
neglected by the owners and their agents. In two instances it was
necessary to take legal proceedings to compel owners to repair
the roofs and gutters of their own houses, as the rainwater was
saturating the premises to such an extent as to render them uninhabitable.
DRAINS UNSTOPPED AND CLEANSED.
The work of unstopping and cleansing drains has received the
usual attention.
At 1,344 houses the drains have been unstopped and cleansed,
being 4.9 per cent. of the houses in the Borough.